Wednesday, September 10, 2014

A Day In The Life...

Hello All!

I was just thinking that I love that when our school day ends and the kids don't yell "YAYYYY!!" at the top of their lungs.  They also don't immediately ask to watch t.v. anymore when they're done with their lessons.  When they were in PS they would ask right away after completing homework.  I'm not anti-TV at all.  I just love that they run to play together as opposed to wanting to brain dump immediately.   Every night after the kids go to bed I prep for the next day by listing out what we're doing tomorrow.  Here's a glimpse at today's board!
My day started at 5:20 when the baby woke up.  We came downstairs and hung out for a bit (this reads - Mommy needed her coffee before anything! ha!) and then we headed out for our sunrise-less walk.
We bypassed yoga this am and moved right onto the pledge and calendar review.  Their art journaling prompt today was to draw yourself as a reptile or amphibian.  I asked them to pretend that they were showing someone who didn't know what the assignment was and have that person be able to identify that it was them.  
Identified as my son by the awesome hair, paper and "quill" pencil...he loves to draw
Yes, that's a cupcake on top of her head...lol!
After journaling came spelling review and hidden picture puzzle fun!  Oh and K is designing her upcoming birthday party invitations, naturally!  ;)
DIY birthday party invites!  LOVE IT!
I then chose 4 reptile/amphibian words and had the children look them up in the dictionary, write the part of speech it is and copy the definition.  I want my children to be able to use a paper dictionary if need be.  Yes, yes, I know they can look everything up and that the technology is right at our fingertips, blah, blah, blah but I want them to know how to use a dictionary and look things up in alphabetical order.  That's just me. 
After this we did our math, geometry for K and double digit addition for T, then DEAR time and a snack!
the ONLY way to spend D.E.A.R. (drop everything and read) time!!
  A new and darling homeschool friend (who happens to live literally around the corner from us) invited us over to play at lunchtime!  The kids were excited!  They are having fun (and success) at making new friends - which is something all parents regardless of their educational choices worries about at some point in time.  These new friends are lovely, so fun and they taught K and T what 'gaga ball' is!  Oh and they have a cat and a Guinea pig too - the kids were in heaven! 

(no I was not moving when I took these photos!)
photo bomb extraordinaire!
they were begging me for one!
We returned home and everyone rested for a few minutes while I got the baby down for his afternoon nap.  Once he was down we had what I call "chit-chat" time which is when we sit and discuss anything related to the topic of the week!  
This week is "Scaly and Slimy" so K read from some of her favorite reptile and amphibian books and T shared with us some great facts he knows.  From here we discussed the concept of what a Venn diagram is and then we filled one out using reptiles and amphibians. 
The kids were awesome at this and loved the visual!  We then did a very quick experiment showing how amphibians drink through their skin and then we checked on our eggs!
Technically I wanted to use a sponge for this but I couldn't quite find the right type of sponge but the kids loved the visual of the moisture crawling up the paper towel much like it would into the skin of an amphibian.  Our eggs are coming along nicely!!  The kids originally wanted to open them but they decided to let them sit a bit longer and observe them.  They noticed that the membrane is now starting to actually look "scaly" and the egg is visibly larger than it was before we started.  It's also heavier and very squishy!
We noticed that Kendall's was floating still while Ty's was resting at the bottom of the cup.  The only difference between the two cups is that T put more food coloring in his than K did.  Interesting for sure!  They noted their observations in their field journals and that was that for today!  

Tonight is Kendall's "parent special" night!!  It's a night once a week where each child gets to pick one of us to hang out with and do something special.  It can be running an errand, (they NEVER go out at night), reading quietly together, making a project, etc.  Tonight I will be teaching K how to latch hook!!  I know, so 1980, right!?  My SIL - well her husband so technically my BIL received a bulldog latch hook as a gift forever ago and I asked her if we could have it so that I could teach K.  I promise to have pictures tomorrow!!
How did you spend your beautiful Wednesday?


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